Uncovering white privilege

In many multiracial societies, those in positions of power and affluence are disproportionately white. It has been asserted that whites get a free ride to the top but white privilege has been difficult to establish scientifically. There had been few if any adequate tests of that subconscious racial boost until two economics professors at the University of Queensland implemented a test in Brisbane, Australia.

Redzo Mujcic and Paul Frijters recruited and trained 29 testers who were male and female and black and white. They were instructed to board buses with the Brisbane equivalent of expired CharlieCards. When the alarm sounded to indicate their cards were void, the testers entreated the driver to permit them to ride for free to a destination about 1.2 miles away.

The results of 1500 tests were statistically significant. Drivers were twice as likely to let white testers ride for free — 72 percent versus 36 percent for blacks. Those wearing army uniforms generally got a free ride if they were white (97 percent), but only 77 percent if they were black.

Ian Ayres, a Yale Law School professor, asserts in a New York Times commentary, “It is easier to imagine decision makers, like the bus drivers, granting extra privileges and accommodations to nonminorities. Discriminatory gifts are more likely than discriminatory denials.”

But such preferential treatment for whites is not the most serious problem confronting the black community. Black drivers also favored white testers 83 percent to 68 percent for blacks. It appears that minorities have absorbed the psychological mandate that whites are entitled to a free pass.

Of course the test was in Australia which has a different racial history than the U.S. One would hope that African Americans have a more evolved concept of racial equality.